Customers like to send texts to businesses

Phone calls are not so effective because they depend on the company to answer the phone. An American Express Survey published some of the most cringe-worthy phrases customers don’t want to hear.

These sound familiar:

Your call is important to us. Please continue to hold.

Or my favorite:

We’re sorry, but we’re experiencing unusually heavy call volumes.

You can hold or try back at another time.

Texting is a quick and convenient way to communicate a problem. It is quick, and agents can respond to texts faster than they can to live calls.

Texting also gives the customer a record of the conversation whereas with live calls, the recorded conversations are only available to the agents.

According to the study published by eWeek, most of consumers (89%) said it was important to be able to use different channels for customer support, including SMS; and 52% of consumers said they would like to text with a customer support representative.

Texting basically puts the power of communication in the hands of the clients and empowered customers = happy customers.

In this case study of AW Dansey Associates, a Webmaster service, they adopted a texting service “to interact effectively with our clients who prefer to communicate via text.”

Texting became a key part of their customer service to the point that “without it we would have lost business.”

Appointment reminders

If you run a service-oriented business such as a beauty salon, massage parlor, mechanic’s office, dentist’s office or other service where you mark appointments with your customers, a simple appointment reminder text can help reduce no-shows and enhance customer experience.

Life can get crazy for everyone and who wouldn’t like a little help remembering their dentist appointment or their annual flu shot?

Again, SMS is a better way to send reminders than email or phone calls.

Emails just can’t compete with SMS in terms of open rates and response rates.

Phone calls can be time consuming for the employee. What if the customer doesn’t answer the phone?

About the Author

Alexa Lemzy is a customer support wizard and blog author at text messaging service TextMagic. She is excited about building strong relationships with customers, new approaches to customer support and smart small business growth. If you have a question or an idea to share, contact her at @Alexa_Lemzy.